Not until that banishing spell was in place and Nina was gone.
Until that happened, Undrea had to stay alert. Even with the wolves patrolling outside. Nina was probably in panic mode. And Undrea had no idea what the succubus would do next.
None of them did, really. Maybe that was why Undrea felt so unsettled. Maybe it was the feeling of waiting for the other shoe to drop.
She tipped her head into the water and said a little prayer that Mattie, Corette, and Pandora didn’t run into trouble.
None of them had ever banished a succubus before. Undrea really hoped there was no learning curve. She had a strong suspicion they weren’t going to get a second chance.
The moment Nina’s connection to Ethan had been severed, she’d felt it like a hot knife going through her. But she’d known two truths in that instant. Despite the connection being cut, he wasn’t dead. Not really. And there was magic at play.
Neither of those things had stopped the panic and desperation that had welled up inside her as she stared into the lake’s murky depths.
Water terrified her. There wasn’t a succubus alive who felt differently. She’d only gotten into the stupid paddleboat because he’d given her every reason to believe he was fully under her spell again and about to propose. Which he’d done.
Then everything had spiraled into a nightmare.
When he hadn’t surfaced, she’d been sick with despair. The loss of connection with him had left her weak. So weak it had taken the last of her energy to get the boat back to shore. She’d left it at the dock, walked back to the car, climbed in, and just sat there for several minutes trying to process what had happened.
When Ethan had reached out to her earlier, she’d been suspicious that he was just going to tell her again that they were done. She couldn’t accept that. She’d put so much time and effort into him. She needed him. Her whole family needed him. Their survival depended on his power and fame and energy.
But he’d been difficult all along.
He should have proposed ages ago, and he hadn’t done that. He’d resisted, and so she’d had to make do with the tenuous connection they had. Once they were married, that connection would be sealed by a blood ritual he’d have no choice in. Doing it before he’d agreed to that level of commitment was too risky, so she’d had no option but to wait.
But she’d begun to doubt the proposal would ever happen. Then the fish girl had shown up and things had changed. Ethan had changed.
Nina wasn’t sure what kind of supernatural the fish girl was, but she had some power, that much was plain. Nina got a feeling from her that felt like trouble. And not just because Ethan was falling for her, hook, line and sinker.
He’d forced Nina to turn things up a notch. Drawing power from him with such frequency was risky, but she’d felt cornered. She needed him to need her. To believe she was the only one who could take care of him the way he required.
And apparently it had worked, because when he’d called earlier, the tone of his voice had been full of mystery and promise and she’d found a reason to hope again.
By the lake, he’d been sweet and kind with a light in his eyes she hadn’t seen in a long while. There’d been no talk of the fish girl. Just about Nina and their future.
Now that future seemed as far away as Neptune was from Earth.
She’d stumbled into the house and collapsed onto the couch to sleep and heal the gaping wound his disappearance had caused. She felt like a piece of her had been ripped away. Sleep wouldn’t cure it, but she didn’t know what else to do until she regained some strength.
A thumping sound woke her. She blinked herself out of sleep, groggy and still weak. She was going to have to feed soon or she’d be in serious trouble. This town was filled with tourists. She’d find someone. Just as soon as she had the energy to hunt. She closed her eyes again. The sound came back.
Knocking.
She pulled herself upright. Please let it be a delivery man. Or someone she could drain. Although no delivery man or tourist was going to offer her the kind of energy boost she needed. She needed power and fame and celebrity.
If she couldn’t find Ethan and reconnect with him, she was going to have to go back to L.A. or New York. There was just no other way around it. Her family was counting on her.
She got to her feet and opened the door.
Three women stared back at her. One older woman, very put together, with two younger ones. One polished, one a little bohemian. Useless. She needed a man. She started to shut the door. “I’m not interested.”
The older woman spoke. “Nina Hascoe?”
“Yes, that’s me.” If this was some kind of welcoming committee…then she realized the younger polished one looked familiar. She pointed at the woman. “I’ve seen you somewhere before, haven’t I?”
The woman made a slightly perturbed face. “I realize we did most of our transaction online, but I was your real estate agent.”
“Oh, right. Penelope something.”
“Pandora,” the woman corrected her.
“Enough,” the older woman said. “We’re wasting time.”
“Agreed,” the bohemian one said.
The older woman reached out toward Nina and spoke a few words.
Nina’s body went stiff, and in an instant, she understood that they were witches. And she’d been frozen with a spell.
The older woman held Nina in the spell, pushing her back into the house as the three witches entered.
The other two women lifted their hands toward Nina, too, and the weight of the magic increased. If not for the spell keeping Nina from moving, she would have fallen to her knees with the pressure of it.
The older woman waved one hand over her head, and the front door swung closed. Then she began to speak. “We know what you are, succubus. We know what kind you are, edax. And we are here to banish you from this place, from this town, and from the lives of those who live here, including Ethan Edmonds.”
Nina tried to speak, but her voice was frozen too. Fools. They would pay for this.
The bohemian one took a handful of powder from a pouch at her waist and sprinkled a circle of it around Nina.
Black pepper, salt, cinnamon, and bay leaf. She might not be a witch, but she knew what things could be used against her. There was a reason she ate her food so plain. The smells rose up around her as the magic grew stronger.
The older woman continued to speak. “Decedere loco isto non revertetur.”
Heat wafted off the circle.
The other two joined in, repeating the phrase. “Decedere loco isto non revertetur.”
They spoke it a third time, then the older woman pointed both hands at the circle and said, “Ignis ab igni!”
The circle flared to life, and flames surrounded Nina. The flames went hotter and brighter and then turned to pitch black, swallowing Nina.
For a moment, she fought, but the blackness overpowered her. It opened a hole under her feet that she was powerless to stop.
And then she fell.
Undrea couldn’t remember when she’d had a better home-cooked dinner. Certainly not in her own house. Fettuccine Alfredo with shrimp and broccoli, salad, garlic bread, and Texas sheet cake for dessert, which she’d never had before but would definitely be having again.